


The Kids are Alright

by Graysonsginger



Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Bisexual Character, Family Feels, Fluff, Gay Character, Gen, Growing Up, Hurt/Comfort, Moral Dilemmas, Multi, POV Third Person Limited, Sidekicks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-02-06
Packaged: 2019-03-14 15:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13592814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Graysonsginger/pseuds/Graysonsginger
Summary: Raquel Ervin contemplates the morality of having sidekicks. Jefferson Pierce doesn't want his daughters to follow in his footsteps. Anissa and Jennifer Pierce can't wait to put on the mask. Virgil Hawkins has done nothing wrong, ever, in his life.





	The Kids are Alright

**Author's Note:**

> I love Raquel Ervin with my entire heart and if Greg Weisman won't give her a character arc, I will.

Raquel Ervin joins the Young Justice team the day her mentor, Icon, joins the Justice League. Within a matter of days, she’s helped save the entire League, the Watchtower, the Team, and, by extension, Earth itself.

By the time she joins the Justice League, Raquel already has a son. She loves Amistad with her whole heart. She looks at her sweet little baby’s face--he’s dressed in one of the hundreds of baby superhero outfits friends and family have given her--and she imagines him the same age she was when she became Rocket. She imagines Augustus giving him Cooperative tech like the belt she wears to this day. She smiles at the idea of flying side-by-side with Amistad.

New superheroes join the League, and Raquel finds they think of her as a legend. The one who convinced Icon to become a hero, the unflappable Rocket who takes everything weird and supernatural in stride, the girl who had thrived as a sidekick, the one whose force fields can stymie even Wonder Woman.

Black Lightning is already impressed with her when he joins the League, so when he finds out Raquel is a single mom, he’s blown away. He and Raquel share pictures and stories of their kids. Despite their friendship, Jefferson can’t help but notice how young Raquel is, how young she was, and how she’s not all that much older than his eldest daughter.

Raquel likes to debate, and Jefferson is often happy to participate. She does get annoyed with how much he brings up her age, Young Justice, sidekicks in general, though. At first, she gets defensive: she loved her time as Icon’s sidekick, the Team--at least the members from when she joined--are her family, but she finds Jefferson makes some solid arguments.

She has to admit, there were missions she almost didn’t come back from. There are villains who don’t care about killing children. There are villains who relish it. And Tula’s death still weighs heavy on her chest. Sometimes she doesn’t know how to justify becoming a hero at a meager fifteen years old. She is so sure teaming up with Icon was the right decision. She is also sure that it was an unwise decision: the kind only a teenager makes. Ah to be young. 

She still believes the Team’s existence is a good thing, and eventually she gets Jefferson to agree. Jefferson’s daughters need no convincing. Anissa is thirteen years old and is desperate for the mask and cape. Jennifer is only seven, and, born with her powers unlike her sister who manifested them during puberty, she can do things with lightning even her father can’t. She’s already able to fly. Jefferson keeps his daughters far away from his superhero life.

Anissa comes out, and Jefferson asks Raquel to talk to her. Raquel is almost honored, but the anxiety over giving a sex/relationship talk is overwhelming. The talk is uncomfortable, but Raquel and Anissa are closer for it. Anissa is relieved she doesn’t have to suffer through her father talking about how to have safe lesbian sex. Plus, Raquel has firsthand experience dealing with all the little things Anissa worries about. She likes knowing there’s a Black wlw in the League; she’s comforted seeing Raquel in a loving, healthy relationship with another woman.

Raquel loves Zatanna. Her looks, her magic, her jokes, everything. She loves spending Hanukkah with her; she loves waking up next to her; she loves that Zatanna is a part of Amistad’s life too. She knows Zatanna loves her, regardless of the little voice in her head telling her otherwise. Some battles can’t be solved with kicking and punching. When she’s feeling down, Zatanna does her best to make her feel better.

Raquel sees the look in Zatanna’s eye when Doctor Fate is around. She notices the ever-growing pile of spell books that Zee pours over well into the night. Zatanna is usually so open and honest, except with this. She used to cry a lot, thinking about how her father sacrificed himself and how a piece of cosmic metal uses his body like a puppet. Raquel doesn’t know when the crying stopped, but she knows it wasn’t because the grief had healed. 

Watching Zatanna study yet another tome, Raquel thinks about how desperately Jefferson tries to protect his daughters, how he isolates them from the superhero world, and how Giovanni Zatara had apparently done the same thing. Zatanna was never his sidekick, not even part of Young Justice until Zatara put on the helmet. Raquel can’t help but wonder if things would’ve turned out differently if Zatanna had been fighting at his side all along. She prays nothing happens to Amistad or Jefferson’s girls.

Static joins Young Justice. Raquel sees a lot of herself in him. She sees a lot of Jefferson in him too. With the near-identical powers, Raquel suggests Virgil would make a good sidekick for him. She is only half joking. Soon after his induction, Static becomes Black Lightning’s sidekick. Raquel finds out through a Daily Planet article. She knows Jefferson has softened on the whole idea of sidekicks--she is half the reason for his change of heart--but she feels a stab of betrayal even though it was her idea in the first place.

Raquel is Jefferson’s teammate, his friend, but he hadn’t even mention taking Virgil under his wing. Every now and then, when the two electricity benders happen to be in the Watchtower at the same time, Black Lightning offers the young hero advice, but that is very different from coordinated costumes and official press releases. Raquel isn’t mad, not really; she can’t expect Jefferson to want her opinion on everything he does. It still feels like an insult. Worse, she thinks of Anissa and Jennifer. She feels betrayed for them. He never lets them so much as step foot into the Watchtower, but here he is with some random boy who’d only gotten powers a few months ago? A little part of her wonders if Black Lightning would already have a sidekick if he had sons not daughters, but Raquel pushes the thought away to call Anissa and Jennifer. She can’t imagine they are taking the news well.

As expected, Black Lightning and Static are a perfect duo. Static thrives under Black Lightning’s tutelage. Raquel still remembers the glimpses she saw of Virgil back when he got sent to S.T.A.R. Labs, and she’s genuinely glad to see joy in his eyes. But while Virgil learns from Jefferson and makes friends with his teammates, Anissa, Jennifer, and Jefferson’s relationship strains. The girls grow rebellious. Anissa, especially, feels constrained by her father’s rules. She complains that they’re unfair, hypocritical even. Anissa moving in with her mom is the breaking point in a lot of ways.

Raquel finds Jefferson crying in the Watchtower terrarium one day. With a hand on his shoulder, she listens to him explain how his worst nightmare is losing one of his girls, how helpless he feels now that he’s losing Anissa anyway. He struggles to figure out some comprise. He struggles with what will happen if he can’t come to some conclusion. He cries at the thought that Jennifer will grow to resent him as much as Anissa, that she might move in with her mom too. Raquel listens to his fears of coming home to an empty house, tears in her own eyes.

After moments of silence, Raquel opens her mouth to give advice before faltering. Jefferson might not like what she has to say. Raquel’s idea is one she’s been thinking about for a while, but didn’t dare bring up. Anissa’s powers can make her as immovable physically as she is personality-wise, but that has limited applications, much like Raquel’s abilities. She’s already been a mentor for Anissa in some ways, why not in a superhero capacity? If she gives Anissa that offer, she has no doubt that Anissa would accept. But Jefferson would never forgive her. Not unless he okays it before hand.

Finally Raquel tells Jefferson her idea, and of course he’s upset. It leads to an argument, which turns into a debate, which eventually becomes just Raquel listing off all the reasons Anissa being her sidekick would be a good thing. Jefferson finally agrees after making Raquel swear on everything she holds dear that she will protect Anissa with her life. Raquel suspects he would not have said yes if it weren’t for her force fields.

It doesn’t solve everything, but slowly Anissa begins to trust her father again. Anissa becomes Thunder. She joins Young Justice and makes fast friends with everyone there. She even bonds with Virgil, who feels a bit trapped in the middle of this father-daughter drama. Meanwhile, Raquel is enjoying having a sidekick, though Anissa grows out of the role quickly. In that time, Anissa and Jefferson reconcile, to Raquel’s great relief. Anissa also gets a girlfriend. Her names is Grace.

Jennifer joins Young Justice without officially being anyone’s sidekick. She feels Raquel is just as much a mentor as her dad or her mom or her sister or Virgil. She teams up with Anissa and Grace a lot. Jennifer approves. As do Jefferson and Raquel.

As the years go by and Raquel watches Thunder and Lightning and all the other Young Justice members grow, get injured, even die, Jefferson’s worries feel much more reasonable. Amistad is in double digits now. He’s shown no sign of having powers; as he enters puberty though, Raquel finds herself on edge, worried about all the things other parents worry about plus the whole superhero thing.

Amistad is friends with many other superheroes’ kids. Anissa, Jennifer, Lian, Damian, Zachary, just to name a few. As of yet, he’s the only one in that age group who isn’t a masked vigilante. But he doesn’t say anything. It takes Raquel asking Amistad outright if he’d ever thought of being a superhero one day when he is fourteen. The question surprises him; he’s just always assumed his mom wouldn’t allow it. Raquel admits he’s probably right. She still remembers how she used to picture her and Amistad flying through the sky together, but now the image is tainted with all the danger, pain, and loss she’s seen. The Watchtower terrarium holds a lot more holograms than it used to.

But, seeing how happy Anissa and Jennifer are, how many friends Zatanna’s cousin Zachary has made since joining Young Justice, how Damian has improved since Bruce took custody from Talia and he became Robin, Raquel thinks, just maybe, Amistad joining the Justice League family would have its upsides. She wants him to do well in school, to go to college, to follow his dreams, so when he shrugs and says he doesn’t want to be a superhero right now, Raquel’s relieved. Still, looking at her beautiful son, she knows he has a good head on his shoulders and a good heart. Though her feelings about sidekicks are still conflicted, she decides that if Amistad ever wants to be a part of Young Justice, she’ll support him every step of the way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Tell me what you thought in the comments.


End file.
